Stefan Pflug: Day 6: Community

We had to get up way early on the 6th day of camp. We were gathering the community around the team for a punt, kick and pass competition. It is a chance for the neighborhood to show up and rally around the team.

We, in return, set up a some competitions and football related games for the kids. We were lined up at eight wearing our sweet white uniforms. It was easy to tell that some of the players were really tired, but I can't help but enjoy myself. It feels like living the life of a professional athlete for a little while.
After a few hours head coach Larry Terry brought the team, spectators and kids together. He talked about the importance of role models, not doing drugs and staying in school. It was very American. Even some of the native players on the team couldn't help but laugh :)

We had team meetings here after, where even more plays were installed. At every meeting we watch skelly and full team and go through the plays. There is so much to learn. I only hope, that I can take as much in as possible.

The mood changed today, because we had full contact scrimmage at night. A few hundred showed up in the stands to watch the event. It was cool to see how people showed up cheering for the team at an unannounced scrimmage.
We have been divided up in freshmen and seasoned players for practice up until now. On this night the defense would blend in experienced players with the rookies. I got off to a rocky start in pass skelly, but did okay in full team. I was thrown to twice. One ball was overthrown and the other one I gripped in a diving catch for a first down. Each wideout got about 6 snaps, so there was not too much to work with. However, I am kinda getting used to that. I wish I could have done more with the opportunities I got, since 'okay' really isn't good enough here.

In regards to the tempo and hits, I'll tell you this – This ain't Denmark. The crowd was silenced more than once by hard hits. The starting safeties on this team are not a joke. Fellow Scandinavian, Philip Minja (SS), nearly ripped of one of the wide outs head and a Tight End got hammered down the seam by the other starting safety, Derek Dreher. Derek is a beast who has seen interest from both the Seattle Seahawks and the Miami Dolphins – He is not to be played around with. These guys come out of the break so quickly that they really don't need to line up in press at any time. That is something that I have to get use to.